Greetings from your new/old class secretary. It's been 15 years
since I was class secretary, and I'm looking forward to sending
this bi-monthly letter to my classmates. Regular readers of Technology
Review know there's a long delay between when these columns are
written and when they appear in print. This Nov/Dec column was
written in mid-July, and has part of the news of our early June
class reunion.
This was our 35th reunion, the seventh time we've made the journey
back in space and time to MIT to spend a weekend with the friends
of our youth, re-hashing and re-living old adventures. I took
a few snapshots at the reunion, but something must have happened
to them when they were developed. The prints I got back showed
a bunch of gray haired, middle aged men and women. This can't
be the Class of '63. I know that because the Class of 1963 won
the Interclass Crew Challenge which was held on the Charles the
Saturday of reunion weekend. We competed against the classes
of '68, '73, '88, '93, and a boat of other classes. Our shell
included Ron Young at cox, John Wasserlein at stroke,
Ron Cheek at #7, Dennis Buss at #6, Jim
Latimer at #5, Mike Greata at #4, Rick Mezzinger
at #3, Lauren Sompayrac at #2, and Jack Lynch at
bow. Our coach was Jack Fraley, who coached crew during our tenure
at the Institute. Well done, lads. We must still be young and
in pretty good shape if our class is winning crew races.
About 70 of us, plus spouses, friends, and children attended all
or parts of the reunion. Our official residence on campus was
Next House, 500 Memorial Drive. Very few of us chose this housing
option. Most wanted more comfortable accommodations. Barbara
and I stayed in the dorm, though. It was always a fantasy of
mine to wake up at MIT and find Barbara in my room. At check-in
we received a canned beaver. No, this was not a snack prepared
by the same people who brought us our commons meals in 1963.
The label warned "Caution! These beavers have been known
to lie in wait under your covers and snuggle you to sleep."
This morning my plush beaver is watching from his can on the
bookshelf as I write.
On Thursday evening we were well represented at Tech Night at
the Pops. Lois and Jim Champy were joined by their son,
Adam, an aspiring physicist. Peter Van Aken was there
with his son, David, MIT class of 2001. So were Ron Walter
and his wife Marilyn, and Graciela and Carlos Uribe. The
grand finale was the singing of our alma mater, Arise All Ye
of MIT. Do you know the words?
Friday morning Barbara and I watched from Next House as President
Clinton arrived by helicopter on Briggs Field to speak at the
Class of '98's graduation. The 50 year reunion class marched
at the head of the graduation processional, looking very regal
in their red MIT blazers. Those alumni in the red blazers looked
much younger to me this year than they did at our graduation in
1963. Those who didn't watch graduation went touring to see Boston's
"Big Dig", the massive highway project to rebuild the
Southeast Expressway, or the "Duck Tour" around Boston
on an amphibious vehicle.
Friday night we had a cocktail party and dinner at Stonehurst
Mansion in Waltham. On the bus to Stonehurst I talked with outgoing
class secretary, Shoel Cohen, and I inherited the secretarial
portfolio. Class president Larry Krakauer conducted elections
for officers for the next 5 years -- I'll put the results in the
next column. Reunion gift chair Martin Schrage announced
our class gift -- we contributed $1.1 million to the alumni fund.
Forty-eight per cent of us participated. Saturday night we gathered
for a buffet dinner and dancing to 50's and 60's music -- our
music -- in Pritchett Lounge in Walker Memorial. Jack Lynch
tried to teach us a few new jitterbug steps. The assembled group
made a good effort and there was a lot of enthusiasm, but the
Class of 1963 is not winning any dance contests. It was fun though.
Our activities ended with Sunday brunch at the MIT Faculty Club
at the Sloan School.
Several of us noticed that our topics of conversation have changed
over the years. At the 5th reunion we were talking about entry
level positions and grad school. At the 10th and 15th reunions
the topics were budding careers, business startups, moving around
the country, and our growing families. Year 20 we were on the
career fast track, and our kids were in grade school. At the
25th and 30th reunions we were rising with our companies, becoming
top managers or technical gurus, and our kids were graduating
college -- a few even graduating (as my daughter, Amy did in 1987)
from MIT. This 35th year there was a noticeable amount of talk
about retirement, travel, and grandchildren.
I chatted with Bob Starzec. He had recently been on a
trip to Texas, and he saw B.G. Brown. B.G. is with McDonnell
Douglas, working on NASA related projects. I remember B.G. as
a pretty good hitter on the Baker House softball team. Bob told
me B.G. recently "retired" from the industrial baseball
league he played in with a .350 batting average. Woody Bowman
has "retired" from politics and is doing research and
teaching in a masters program in public service at the University
of Illinois. Ricardo Bernal won the "long distance
award" for this reunion, coming all the way from Bogota,
Colombia to attend. Joel Schindall was also a long distance
traveler, coming from Poway, CA (near San Diego for those of you
who are geographically challenged.)
In non-reunion items, Steve Zilles wrote that he has
been working as Adobe Systems' Manager of Standards for almost
six years. He's been active in the IETF for printing and fax
standards. As co-chair of the Extensible Stylesheet Language
Working Group in the World Wide Web Consortium he traveled to
mundane and exotic locations in pursuit of interoperability among
software systems. Steve and his wife, Connie, are celebrating
not only 35 years since graduation, but their 35th wedding anniversary.
Congratulations!
On a sad note, we report that Clare Fetrow died on Jan
10, 1998. I remember him as a fellow physics major at the Institute.
Recently he was a principal engineer at Radix Systems in Rockville,
MD. Our condolences to his family.
Finally, a class secretary's plea. SEND NEWS. With E-mail it's
so easy there's no excuse. I talked to a lot of you at the reunion,
but I didn't make notes. In the six weeks since then the synapses
in my brain have come loose -- I've forgotten most of the details
-- a common symptom at our advanced age. For those of you who
weren't at the reunion, write, call or E-mail and let me know
what you're up to. You can reach me at: Mike Bertin,
22 Gillman St, Irvine, CA 92612. E-mail:
MCB1@aol.com. If you
want to schmooze, call me at (949) 786-9450.
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